Gareth Bale. Frank Worrall
was subbed on 75 minutes after a challenge from Fabrice Muamba left him with a foot injury. A scan showed that Gareth had suffered ligament damage to his right ankle, and the really bad news was that it would mean he would be out for at least three months. It was a devastating blow just as Gareth had cemented his place at left-back in the first team, having made 12 appearances and scored three goals.
Spurs’ sporting director Damien Comolli confirmed the situation in a statement on the club’s website a week after Gareth suffered the injury. Comolli said,
‘Gareth will now undergo an examination under anaesthesia to determine the damage sustained to the foot. The decision has been taken to bring him back slowly. Gareth is obviously disappointed to be sidelined for this length of time but he is still young and we have to do what is best for him in the long run.’
The Bale injury jinx had struck again – and it would not be the end of the matter. Worse news was to follow. In February 2008, Comolli stuck his head above the parapet once again, this time to rule Gareth out for the rest of the season. Comolli said, ‘Although the surgeon was happy with the results of the X-rays he does not anticipate Gareth playing any further part this season. We are all disappointed, but his long-term fitness is our priority.’
Gareth was also disappointed. He would miss out on a season that saw Ramos set down a marker by guiding Tottenham to Premier League safety and also taking them to their first silverware for nine years.
Of course, Gareth was delighted for his team-mates as they beat Chelsea 2-1 to lift the League Cup at the new Wembley stadium in March 2008 (they had also won the same competition by beating Leicester 1-0 back in 1999) – but it was hard not being a part of the glory day at the end of February 2008.
Still, he was an optimist and was working hard on his rehabilitation. Yes, he was determined that he would also be part of a Wembley final for his new club when he got back to full fitness – and that it wouldn’t take years to get there. He wouldn’t have to wait long for that dream to come true – just 12 months, in fact.
And there was one unexpected high note as the season drew to its close – Gareth won praise from the man who was continuing to prove himself as a managerial genius, if also a hate figure of many Tottenham fans. Yes, even though his first Premiership season had been wrecked by that foot injury, Gareth was acclaimed by former Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho, who included him in his Fantasy Football XI.
Mourinho, by now in charge of Serie A side Inter Milan, said he believed Bale was destined to reach the very top of world football when he recovered from his enforced lay-off. Praise indeed from the man who would the following season win the Champions League with Inter – his second success in the competition after landing it with Porto in 2005. Even in a season that had been disrupted by injury, Gareth had clearly been making waves – and special ones at that.
It had been a long, lonely, arduous road back to fitness for Gareth during the first seven months of 2008. He would spend hour after hour with physios and rehab experts in the gym and on the training field as he slowly but surely pounded the road to recovery. Many footballers I have spoken to over the years have told me how frustrating and testing those long hours can be – and how they can take you to the limit mentally and emotionally, as well as physically.
Roy Keane, for example, would admit that he was ‘terrible company to be around’ when he was out injured. The Irishman is one of the strongest, most determined people you would ever meet in terms of mental durability. But even he would concede that doubts crept in about whether he would ever play again as he was forced to spend almost a whole season on the sidelines after suffering cruciate ligament injury in the 1997/98 campaign. Keane said his long-term recovery programme pushed him to the limit emotionally and mentally and that he had many low periods as he struggled to regain his fitness. But, of course, he did return and eventually to the level of aggression and talent for which he had already become famed.
Gareth would face a similar mountain to climb in those challenging eight months on the sidelines. But he is more of a measured, balanced individual than Keano – less susceptible to bouts of the black dog and with a more positive outlook. Of course, as we have mentioned already, he was gutted not to be playing every week and particularly to have missed out on the League Cup final win over Chelsea.
But he kept his spirits up and was fully supported by his family and friends. He had also experienced the physical battle before – he was no stranger to injury and physical demands on his body. After all, it had been a tough ride during his early and mid teens when growth spurts put pressure on his back. Yes, pain was no stranger.
Certainly Ramos, Comolli and the backroom staff at the Lane were impressed by his resilience and optimistic attitude. ‘He’s a fighter and a winner,’ the Spaniard would say in his broken English. ‘He will be back – and better than before.’
That probably explains why in August 2008 Ramos put him straight back into the first team for the start of the new 2008/09 season and also boosted his spirits even more by awarding him the No. 3 shirt for the campaign – even though Lee Young-Pyo was still at the club – and a new contract, even though he had only put pen to paper to a four year deal 14 months earlier.
Gareth happily signed the new four-and-a-half year deal offered to him by the club. It gave him improved terms on the deal signed in May 2007 – I am told his salary increased from £15,000 a week to £25,000 – and provided both sides with security until at least 2012. Spurs hoped that by that time their wonder boy would appreciate how much he was wanted and loved by the club, and would stay well beyond. It was a piece of shrewd management and shrewd business sense by Tottenham. It showed Gareth that they believed he had a big future at the Lane – and that they were also convinced he would not only recover from his injury but come back stronger than ever.
By acting early, I am told Spurs hoped they had taken the important first steps in tying up a superb young talent for what they hoped would be his whole footballing career.
But his season would once again be disrupted by injury and instability behind the scenes.
Gareth’s first competitive appearance since the foot injury was in the 2-0 loss at Middlesbrough on Saturday August 16, 2008, when he came on as a 65th-minute sub for Aaron Lennon. He started the next match on the left of a five-man midfield and ended up getting booked as Spurs crashed 2-1 to Sunderland in their first Premier League match of the new campaign at the Lane.
The joy and glory of winning the League Cup almost six months earlier was beginning to evaporate for Tottenham fans – as was goodwill towards boss Ramos. A sign of the crevice between supporters and manager was their restlessness not only at the poor results but also that he had not ingratiated himself more within the club and their affections. It was a fact that he still could not communicate in English – and there were growing suggestions that the team were suffering as a consequence.
Once again it was left to Ramos’s trusty assistant, the likeable Gus Poyet to face the media after the latest defeat. He said of the loss to the Mackems, ‘Defeat is difficult to take because we really tried very hard to go and create chances, and we had a few, to change the result. They did their job – Sunderland really worked very hard.’
By deduction, Spurs had not done their job nor worked very hard. Ramos was on the rack and it got worse – the Spaniard would lead the club to their worst ever start to a league campaign, with the team rock bottom of the table with just two points from their opening eight matches. Clearly it couldn’t continue and the board put him (but mostly the fans, seeing as he would pocket a fat compensation fee) out of their misery on October 25, 2008.
Gareth had played in 11 matches under Ramos that season. The disastrous run of results had also seen Gareth sent off for the first time in his career, as they lost 2-1 at Stoke, a week before the Spanish manager’s